Oh no! I actually had no idea the shows at Atlas were covert!!!

I've heard great things about shows there, and was particularly excited about the Pop Picnic taking place there on July 14th -- I really hope they get it all together before then so the proverbial pop show can go on...

I've been to a few atlas shows myself, and I had no idea it was a secret operation. It wasn't my favorite venue, they still had yet to get some of their shit together, but it was promising.

I sure hope they can get up and running soon! There are far too few all-ages venues around here :\

there are plenty of houses throughout seattle hosting punk shows, but they also aren't attempting to operate as legitimate (much less profitable) venues. i'd agree that they didn't even try to be covert about what they were doing, though it was clearly an unlicensed venue. i just presumed that there were probably related code violations because a clothing store isn't really designed to be a place for shows with a large crowd. i definitely got the impression that it was the owner's desire for a bigger profit which caused extensive promotion in order to get more paying showgoers.

that said, the people at the stranger are really being dicks in defending themselves. it's patently obvious, including ari's quote from the fire department, that eric's story directly resulted in atlas being shut down. hell, eric acknowledged it in the opening paragraph -

But the operation is still somewhat underground, unlicensed, possibly not up to fire code, and Fuller is worried that any press will prematurely expose and destroy the labor he's been pouring himself into for months just as the would-be venue is on the cusp of becoming legit.

it probably would have happened eventually, but this caused it to happen now. the stranger always covers the opening of new rock clubs, especially ones on capitol hill, but they went out of their way to focus on the fact that this club was illegal. not everything that's newsworthy makes it into a paper, and the stranger clearly made a business decision in deciding to run this story. if it was a "support the music industry & all-ages clubs" decision, the story gets held until the organizers were on better financial & legal footing.

If anyone is bummed about this, it is me! Okay, and all the people running Atlas, of course. But mannnnn! I was the one planning Pop Picnic at Atlas, and I had poured almost a year's worth of work into setting it up. Now, two weeks before opening, when everything was finally settled, the venue is shut down? Horrible.

I realize I'm kind of focusing on my own dilemma here, but it all ties in - maybe The Stranger could have thought of things like this before they posted such a negative article. It takes a lot to make an all-ages venue a success, and since the all-ages community is so important, I think it's essential for the media to really try to rally around upcoming venues and help build a thriving all-ages scene. Eric Grandy clearly knew what he was doing when he wrote this article, and it resulted in the shut down of another promising all-ages venue. What a shame.

You'll have to forgive my rant. I'm quite upset.

aww chelsea that really sucks! I'm sorry! Well, theres still a chance that it'll get back up again, right? Don't lose faith!

Hm... just sucks ass in general... Atlas definitely was/is promising. Speaking of sucking ass, I think the Stranger is losing its readers in general. The layout sucks ass. The writers are bored, and boring(doesn't Hannah Levine write for the Weekly now?), and they still take money from the tobacco industry.

I think this makes the fire department look really lazy. I mean, c'mon, Atlas had a big sign outside their front door with a huge arrow pointing "Shows in here!!" And they didn't notice anything until a newspaper article was written? Or perhaps they didn't care until a publication went on record exclaiming how illegal the shows are. However, I think if Atlas were to be advertising like they were, they should have gotten their venue up to snuff before opening. I know they were really excited about running a venue out their garage, but this was inevitable for such a large underground venue. And the Stranger? Well, everyone's said it above me.

yes the stranger is played out, turning into a sad parody of its former self

and it looks so ugly and amateur now

Sure, the Stranger was 'just reporting' and all that, but who thought the Stranger of all papers would turn into a narc? There are lots of things that are good and fun and not exactly legally endorsed - and I for one won't be telling the Stranger about any of them in the future!

I hope Pop Picnic survives.

I think it was the Pharmacy who posted a bulletin, saying some details about the whole Atlas thing, but they said that Atlas was in the process of getting their permits and all those fire code things you have to have...that makes it seem a very unfair situation to me. Maybe they werent supposed to have shows going on during this process, but still.
Also shoutout to my grrrrl Chelsea because she put in hard work (believe me, hard work! and lots of time)!

I know -- my heart is really breaking for Chelsea's popfest, and I'm wracking my brain trying to think of some place that would be willing to play host to it. If my place were bigger I'd totally invite all the bands over to play! ;)